the district is not the nation's practice field

as often is the case, another national group is attempting to influence local district of columbia politics. the nra does it all the time - most recently getting an amendment attached to a version of the dc voting rights act that would repeal all of the district's gun control laws. and now it's the catholic church.

you see, the dc council is this close to approving a law that would allow same sex couples to marry (including the flipflop fed!). and this does not make the catholic archdiocese of washington happy. in fact, they're so unhappy that they're threatening to stop playing with the city and take all of their social services and go home.

my issue is not that a group would assert its principles and declare that it could no longer participate in an activity that may cause it to compromise deeply held beliefs. my issue is that the catholic church would never pull this shit anywhere else. consider canceling all social service contracts with the state of massachusetts? HELL NO. (although they did decide to stop providing adoption services lest, god forbid, lgbt people be allowed to adopt. the irony in it all? over the years, catholic charities in massachusetts has placed several children with gay adoptive families - oops!)

i would expect archbishop wuerl to "play christian," but at this point i'll settle for "playing nice."

grab your smoothbore musket! barry's predicting civil war

for me, today's long-awaited announcement (one that many see as the precursor to full marriage rights for all in the district) that the dc city council had voted by a margin of 12 to 1 to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states was completely overshadowed by marion barry's commentary on the vote. barry, the lone dissenting vote (who, ironically, initially voted FOR the measure, but then asked for a revote because he said that he didn't realize for what he was voting), said that he couldn't vote for the bill because he needed to "stand on the moral compass of god." i wonder if he uses that same yard stick when deciding not to pay his taxes or smoke crack?

if that wasn't enough, barry then went on to say that there would be all out "civil war" in the district if the council were to legalize lgbt marriage. and while that statement is nothing but inflammatory and irresponsible, his final assessment is down-right laughable. today, barry also was quoted as saying that "we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents" in ward 8. uh ... okay, marion! although, now it's much more clear to me how you are completely incapable of doing those simple calculations for the irs. how did that song go? when smoke gets in your eyes ...

*i can't believe that i couldn't even make it five posts without gay!